Reviews with content warning for Rape - Seven Days in June

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Seven Days in June by Tia Williams

47 reviews

nouriareads's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I loved Tia Williams’ writing style. The book is well-paced and there is a good balance between flashbacks and present day. The characters were funny and mostly pretty realistic, and the attraction between Eva and Shane (as adults) was undeniable. I loved the relationship between Eva and Audre, how protective of each other they are and how Eva would do anything to be the parent she didn’t have. It was interesting to see how Eva tackled life with an invisible disability because she is not public about it and has to pretend to be fine most of the time. The peek into the Black literati community was also refreshing.

While being so passionately “in love” within 7 days as teenagers could make sense, the same feelings and intensity after 15 years with no contact and within the same timeframe seemed a little much and felt very rushed especially given how things ended. “In love” because that week when they were teenagers felt more like co-dependency and them encouraging each other's destructive behaviours. I don’t think the author glamorized that week, but there’s something I can’t quite pinpoint that made me feel like it was still a little romanticized. Maybe it was because it was written from a limited third-person POV and they thought they were in love. My issue was not feeling the stance “this is not love.”

I didn’t appreciate how Ty was treated as a plot device for the (unnecessary) conflict and Audre had a few unrealistic traits

e.g. she’s read Freud, watched Midsommar and offers therapy sessions at 12

(though this might come from Eva’s parenting because sometimes they’re more friends than mother/daughter).

Overall I really liked the book, but I recommend checking content/trigger warnings before reading if it’s something you need.

Content Warnings

bookrecsbyjess's review against another edition

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4.0

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thenovelsphere's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Seven Days in June is a beautifully written second-chance romance book that explores trauma and how it impacts relationships. Williams has a way with words in this book, and I love it.

The plot
Seven Days in June follows author and single mum, Eva and another author, Shane, with who she had a relationship in the past when they were young. They meet again for the first time since their breakup and there are a lot of unanswered questions that they need to face, mainly their breakup.

The reason for Shane ending their relationship hints at a pretty significant event outside of the common reasons why people break up, such as cheating. This gives a kind of mystery element to the plot where you're constantly guessing what could have happened for Shane to leave Eva so abruptly. I love how as you read on, the story of their relationship unravels little by little. You're given just enough information to know about Shane and Eva's past but not too much, which entices you to carry on reading.

I also love how every chapter has a title too! I don't know if it's just me, but I barely see chapter titles in books nowadays! But the titles in Seven Days in June always got me excited about what was going to happen next!

The Characters
One thing about Seven Days in June is that not one character is one-dimensional. Each character is complex, with their own demons they had to face. And of course, with multi-dimensional characters, there was great character development, which was heartwarming to see with Eva and Shane.

Eva and Shane are both characters who you just want to root for. Both as individuals and as a couple. We see them go through intense struggles and suffering in their younger years to now being successful authors. But the one thing missing with both of them was that closure from their breakup. So them both having a second chance at being together and unravelling everything that went down was bittersweet yet beautiful.

I've got to make an honourable mention to one of my favourite characters in Seven Days in June. Eva's daughter, Audre is smart and witty for a 12-year-old and I love that she brought a bit of comedy to this heavy story!

The Writing Style
Williams has a way with words for sure! I had to go back and reread some sentences to soak in how beautifully she described the emotions of her characters. I also love how the different character perspectives in the chapters weren't just confined to Ava and Shane. For example, there were chapters dedicated to Eva's mum's perspective, which gave a more holistic understanding of everyone involved in Eva and Shane's story.
The only thing that stopped me from giving it 5 stars was the pop culture references! I don't know what it is about them, but I'm just not a fan of pop culture references in books. It wasn't too much at the beginning but I felt like in the last quarter of the book, the pop culture references got turned up to 80%.

Overall, this book was an amazing read and so beautifully written. I'm excited to read more of Tia Williams's books that she decides to release in the future!

Content Warnings

lostcupofstars's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Look, the first 50 pages, I was convinced I wasn’t gonna like this book. It was slow, and I saw the MC’s daughter’s full name and was concerned that it was another one of those books with far too many woke and pop culture references.

Then Shane was introduced and I forgot all about that stuff.

The heart of this book is where it truly shines. The pacing is spot on and the plot develops well between past and present. There are so many issues covered here (check the tw if you need to before reading!) and their relationship was far from perfect (I deffo think there’s a lot to be said re codependency and their relationship as teens) but they did have good chemistry and I really wanted them to work it out.

The last 50 pages were quietly chaotic; this section really could have done with more. Pages of text convo always leaves me feeling cheated. There was too much happening in such a short space of time and I still don’t really understand why

Ty needed to die? Shane has been through enough already, this seemed unnecessary to me

You lot know by now I’m an honest reviewer! I didn’t expect to enjoy this book at all based on all the hype, but the characters felt real and that’s something I truly appreciate. I think if the beginning had been more concise and the end had been more fleshed out, this would have been an easy 4 or 5 star read for me. That being said, I enjoyed it and I’m glad I read it.

Content Warnings

nick13's review against another edition

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emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Okay, so I had no idea what this book was about other than hearing it was a romance book and I gotta say, for a person who doesn't like romance as a genre usually, this book rocked! I liked how pretty much all of the characters are black which honestly is a refresher at this point because all of the books I've been reading are mostly filled with white people, Eva is an incredible main character and her relationship with her daughter is so sweet, and, in fact, all of the characters in this book are incredible.
Basically, read this book and if you like romance then definitely read this book!
The only thing that kind of annoyed me was the amount of pop culture in it which is a bit of a pet peeve of mine since I always think about the 'what if someone wanted to read this in twenty years?'
The only other thing that is a pretty sure critique of this book is that the whole thing is incredibly made with realistic characters making realistic decisions all the way up until the big climactic point where

Eva and Shane break up, which just kind of irks me. It kind of feels a bit forced, and I get what the author was going for, but I wish they maybe put just a couple more pages into it that gave it more of an impact.

Content Warnings

lcplynn's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

tmoore65's review against another edition

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dark funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

At times it felt like the author was trying to hard to be "hip" with all of the pop culture references. Regardless, I really enjoyed Shane and Eva's story, the parts of them reconnecting were really sweet and romantic. I also adored all of the side characters, but Audre and Cece especially they were iconic. I felt like the author did a good job talking about invisible disabilities and how draining they can be, especially because I feel like these types of disabilities aren't talked about very often in media. I'm not always a huge fan of second chance romances and I'm not sure if I would agree that Shane and Eva are good for each other or if they are just trauma bonded, but I feel like their story makes sense and I did enjoy watching it play out.

Content Warnings

kayladaila's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Content Warnings

toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The writing in this second chance romance is exquisite. I love reading about writers, and this romance is about two writers, so that was perfect. This was a 5 star prediction and I'm so happy that it turned out to be exactly what I wanted. THE CHEMISTRY between these two leads....it was everything. TO ADD ONTO THAT: i loved the representation in here for invisible disabilities / chronic pain. the main character is a migraine sufferer and it impacts her day to day so much and i found that extremely relatable.

Content Warnings

becksreadsbooks's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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